speeding up file transfers?

[offsprg01]

ok so when ever i write to or from my cf or sd card via my pda though windows explorer the transfer rate is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. and not just christmas slow, i mean like the second comming slow. it takes over 45 minutes to write 400megs worth of mp3's. but if i pop the same card in to my card reader it takes less than 5 minutes. i have my pda connected to a usb 2.0 port, so it's not that. does every one have this problem?

[Zaniax]

The brand and format of your card is very important.
I once had a 20 times speed increase by reformating and using just one FAT table.
To get full information click here

[srvctec]

Yup, that's just the way it is. The ONLY way to have fast transfer rates is to remove the card and use a card reader- OK, maybe not the only way, but the best way IMHO.

[srvctec]

The brand and format of your card is very important.
I once had a 20 times speed increase by reformating and using just one FAT table.
To get full information click here

Won't that just increase the read/write speed between the device and cards residing in said device, i.e. when the device isn't connected to a pc for file transfer? Just asking- not second guessing you.

I was under the impression that AS is kind of a bottle-neck that causes an extreme slow down for file transfers and no matter what you did to optimize your cards, AS would still make the transfers slow.

[Zaniax]

I haven't done any benchmark on the AS transfer but quite a few on my SD and CF cards after reading the WHOLE article by Menneisyys.

(actually, I had to do a re-edit with new lines and chapters just to get the fine points :o )


But it was worthwhile

[johnm356]

Last year for my Axim X51v, I bought a new SanDisk 2Gb Ultra II CF card and a couple of SanDisk 1Gb SD cards, which are -supposed- to have 10Mb/sec read/write speeds - at least according to the claims on the package, and several benchmark sites.

Plugged them in, and ouch.... they both dragged the X51v to a snail's pace.

Running benchmark tests using Pocket Mechanic, Spb Benchmark, and even SiSoft Sandra on the desktop all yielded similar results - they were only getting speeds in the 1.5-2Mb/sec range..... all tests were run on clean cards and on a variety of hardware - my internal card reader on the PC, and external SanDisk ImageMate 12-in-1 USB reader, and in the X51v itself.

I returned the CF card to Circuit City and exchanged for another, just to see and guess what... exact same results.

Then I came across CNetX Flash Format. (No, I don't work for them)

It -properly- diagnosed & formatted my storage cards, based on size and application (ie, camera, PDA, MP3 player, etc.). The intended use is just as important as the card size - it can make a HUGE difference.
In my case, it recommended:

SanDisk 1Gb SD card - should be FAT16, 16Kb cluster size
SanDisk 2Gb Ultra II CF Card - should be FAT 16, 32Kb cluster size

Apparently both cards when new, already came formatted as FAT16, but with cluster sizes twice as large as what FF recommended:
- the 1Gb was FAT16 / 32K
- the 2Gb was FAT16 / 64K
The thing is, the manufacturer has no idea HOW you intend to use the card, so they just use the most common format, which more times than not, will be wrong for what YOU want to use it for.

I let FF do it's thing and performance on BOTH cards improved dramatically, and by that I mean by at least a 300% increase in R/W speeds... according to Pocket Mechanic's benchmarks.

[Zaniax]

Always format your cards...

Seems to be sum up of SanDisk 2Gb Ultra II CF card - slooooow and found an answer... from 2006

John - you could be right if you have a lot pictures on your card.
But try to time the transfer of a lot of (400+) small files and you'll probably find something like FAT16 8k and no backup FAT (just 1 FAT) to be faster.

(I used the Favorite folder for my test)

There are NO simpel solutions - read that post by master Menneisyys